Hulk, the Zenit St Petersburg striker, left, was upset at being substituted in the Champions League game against Milan. Photograph: Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA

Jinx strikes holders again

With Chelsea's elimination on Wednesday, it is now 22 years since a club retained the European Cup, Milan in 1990. In that span 14 clubs have won the competition, from eight countries. By contrast the English top-flight title has been retained on seven occasions, with only six clubs having won it; La Liga has been retained eight times and won by five clubs; Serie A retained eight times, won by five clubs; the Bundesliga retained four times, won by six clubs; even the FA Cup, the ultimate knockout competition, has been retained twice and won by only nine clubs in the last 22 years. For all the faults of tinkering with the competition's format two decades ago, it has produced a brilliantly unpredictable tournament. Mike Adamson

Wall-to-wall football

What are you doing this weekend? If you were so inclined, you could spend it watching football all the way from Friday night to Sunday night – Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A, the SPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, the Eredivisie, the works – and with so much to keep you occupied, unknown quantities are in short supply these days. Now most of us could even reel off at least three Hatem Ben Arfa facts without even checking Google! Yet sometimes it's enjoyable not to know; it's fun to watch a match without any idea who's playing and gradually realise that one of the players has something special, which is what people might have experienced watching Málaga's brilliant midfielder Isco for the first time. Shakhtar's Brazilians have been around for a while too but have rarely been this good, while Galatasaray's prolific striker Burak Yilmaz and Porto's winger James Rodríguez will be worth keeping an eye out for in the round of 16. Although now the secret's out. Jacob Steinberg

Dortmund's production line runs deep

Against Manchester City, Dortmund started without six first-team players – the captain Sebastian Kehl, defender Sven Bender and attacking midfielder Mario Götze were injured, while the Polish trio of Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Robert Lewandowski were on the bench – yet after a stop-start first half they dominated the second half. Their 23-year-old striker Julian Schieber scored his first Champions League goal, the 23-year-old Ivan Perisic was impressive in midfield in his first European start of the season, while Moritz Leitner, Dortmund's exciting 19-year-old playmaker, showed enough flashes to suggest he could be another star in the making. Sean Ingle

Hulk should learn some respect

Your team is leading Milan by a single goal. If you hold on to that lead for the final 10 minutes of the match, you'll secure a place in the Europa League. After a fairly sedate first half, Milan are picking up some pace and look like they could score. They're the better side and you're vulnerable. If you were standing in the Zenit St Petersburg dugout, what do you do? Zenit manager Luciano Spalletti decided to replace a striker with a midfielder to shore things up in the middle. It worked. His team held on to their lead and will play European football after Christmas. Spalletti was reasonably pleased with his night's work. Hulk, the substituted striker, was not.

Speaking after the game, Spalletti adopted the default position of the thwarted football manager. Instead of criticising his player for his blatant selfishness and lack of manners, Spalletti explained away the tantrum as evidence of his man's desire to play: "Great footballers are always upset after the manager substitutes them." Alex Ferguson adopted the same technique with Cristiano Ronaldo when he had lost the will to play for Manchester United. It's not much of a smokescreen. Emphasising the player's good qualities might explain a momentary lack of discipline, but Hulk was far from contrite when speaking to the local media after the match: "If the situation with the coach does not resolve itself I may leave the club in the January transfer window."

With Hulk leading the fight against his manager, Spalletti had to show some authority. "Hulk can say anything he wants," said Spalletti. "But if I decide to change him during the game it means I'm not happy with his play. Hulk is mistaken if he thinks he should play for 90 minutes all the time. He said he wants to leave? Then, it's his choice and I can do nothing about it. As for myself, I'm not going anywhere."

Good luck to Spalletti. He is paid to pick his team, make his substitutions and win his matches. Hulk should learn to calm down, know his place and show his team-mates some respect. Paul Campbell

Lennon's widening ambitions

Neil Lennon could conceivably win 10 SPL titles in a row without being afforded the wider recognition collected by Champions League success. Just as the stock of Celtic's players has been enhanced by an unlikely progression to the last 16, their manager is guaranteed to attract attention. It is only logical to suggest Lennon will have professional ambitions beyond Scotland, a matter which may now be tested a lot quicker than many onlookers had earlier thought. Ewan Murray

Ferguson should fancy chances

Manchester United may have lost against Cluj on Wednesday evening and at Galatasary in the previous game but these were dead rubbers as Sir Alex Ferguson's men had already coasted to an unassailable lead in Group H. The Scot is pleased with how his squad responded following last season's exit at this juncture, and though when the Champions League wakes again in February Real Madrid, Milan, Porto, Shakhtar Donesk and Celtic are potential opponents, if Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and the first-choice defence stay injury-free Ferguson will fancy his chances of going deep into the competition. Jamie Jackson

Will the Arsenal manager spend?

It is the perennial question and the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has the funds at his disposal. But does he see availability and sufficient value in the January transfer market? Moreover, can he sign somebody who represents what he considers to be an improvement on what he already has in his preferred starting lineup, five of whom are players that he either signed this summer or the last? The chances are that he will look for cover for his thin squad but at least that will be positive, judging on Tuesday's evidence in the defeat at Olympiakos, when his second string went meekly in the second half. Thierry Henry stands to provide stop-gap help up front. And one other thing: if Wenger is banking on Abou Diaby's return to full fitness, I'm going to scream. David Hytner

Will Wenger regret defeat to Olympiakos?

He wasn't to know it when he decided who would board the flight from Luton to Athens on Tuesday lunchtime, but Arsène Wenger can reflect now that if Arsenal had played a full-strength side and beaten Olympiakos on Tuesday night, they would have won Group C thanks to Schalke's draw in Montpellier. Instead they go into the pot of non-seeds for the draw on Thursday 20 December, and have about a 19% chance of drawing Barcelona, as they did in 2010-11, the last time they were group runners-up (although there are six teams they could face, Barcelona have only five options, making the statistics a bit more complex than just a one in six chance). The other possible fixtures for Arsenal are PSG, Málaga, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Bayern Munich, which is surely a trickier prospect than they could have had as group winners – Porto, Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Valencia, Celtic or Galatasaray. Mike Adamson

Zagreb get their goal at last

Which team performed worst in the group stages? Nordsjaelland failed to win a match and ended up with a goal difference of -18. Manchester City lost their three away games and couldn't win at the Etihad. But at least these teams scored a few goals. Dinamo Zagreb went into their game with Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday night without a single goal from their first five group games. Their first three matches ended in fairly respectable 2-0 defeats, before they lost 4-0 at Paris Saint-Germain and 3-0 at Porto. On Tuesday night they had a chance to make amends and restore some of their battered pride.

Zagreb were at home and the conditions – a freezing pitch covered in snow – suggested goals were likely. With the ball bobbling about on a wintery pitch surely someone would be able to knock it into the net. Dynamo Kyiv opened the scoring at the end of the first half, when Andriy Yarmolenko smashed an outrageous volley into the top corner. Conceding goals is second nature to this Zagreb side; they didn't have to worry about that. They just had to score. The Zagreb fans kept up their boisterous chanting, waiting for that elusive strike. But the conditions weren't helping. The snow made passing the ball almost impossible, so both teams were reduced to punting the ball long. By the 94th minute, Zagreb still hadn't put the ball in the next. In nearly 10 hours of football, they hadn't scored once.

With only a few seconds to go, the Dynamo Kyiv goalkeeper came rushing out of his goal and fouled the Zagreb striker Ivan Krstanovic. He fell to the slushy grass with his arms wide open, appealing to the referee for a penalty. The official pointed to the barely visible spot. Krstanovic stepped up to take the kick himself. He rolled the ball into the bottom corner as the Dynamo keeper dived the other way. Zagreb had their goal. They didn't qualify; they didn't win any of their games; but at least they scored a goal. Who said there's no romance in the Champions League? Paul Campbell

Shifting balance of power

The days of English dominance in the Champions League now seem a distant memory. Chelsea's success in Munich last May was an anomaly after a steady yet definite decline by Premier League sides in recent years. Before this season 61 English teams had qualified for the group stages of the competition but only 10 of them had failed to advance through the first phase. Manchester City and Chelsea have since made that number 12.

City, the Premier League champions, managed a dismal three points this year to become only the third English side to finish bottom of their group after Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and Manchester United in 2005. Between 2006-7 and 2008-9 nine English teams reached the Champions League semi-finals, with just three sides making the last four between 2009-10 and 2011-12. An English club may still be champions of Europe, but the balance of power has certainly shifted. James Riach